Hillicon Valley: Hackers eye students returning to virtual classes as easy targets | Postmaster General testifies ballots will be prioritized | Shipt acknowledges tipping error, will begin quarterly reviews

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THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT: As many students across the country are returning to school online this fall, they face a potential wave of cyberattacks from hackers seeking to take advantage of academic institutions conducting remote classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Universities and schools are scrambling to address threats such as a surge in malicious phishing emails, “Zoombombs” and other kinds of attacks. But with weakened budgets and students learning off campus, they are facing an uphill battle.

“We are seeing a dramatic increase in phishing, this is fully expected, we knew it would happen with any major calamity,” Michael Tran Duff, chief privacy officer and chief information security officer (CISO) at Stanford University, said during a virtual event hosted by software company Proofpoint on Wednesday. 

Stanford was among several universities impacted by a phishing email scheme earlier this year which saw cyber predators using the student emails to apply for fraudulent loans.

Duff noted that malicious actors often target former government officials working at Stanford, but emphasized that the majority of incidents are “targeted indiscriminately.”

“It’s not surprising that these phishing attacks — especially because this is one of the greatest disruptions our country has ever seen — have been more successful maybe than in the past,” Duff said. 

Helen Patton, the CISO of Ohio State University, noted during the same virtual event that while the pandemic had “interrupted the business of cybercrime,” she has seen high levels of phishing emails sent to those affiliated with the university. 

“We see an increase in phishing attacks when our people come back to college in the fall because they know our folks are going to be more off kilter,” Patton said. “When summer came, into May and June, the normal expectation would be to see phishing decrease, we didn’t quite see that this year.”

The concerns of the university officials have been magnified by warnings from federal agencies of foreign cyber attackers targeting groups involved in COVID-19 research. 

Read more here. 

 

NEITHER SNOW NOR RAIN: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Friday said that ensuring mail-in ballots are delivered during elections this year is his ” No. 1 priority.”

The statement from the postmaster general comes as DeJoy has faced criticism of recent decisions made around reforming the Postal Service.

“As we head in the election season, I want to assure this committee and the American public that the Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation’s election mail securely and on time,” DeJoy testified during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the Postal Service.

“This sacred duty is my No. 1 priority between now and Election Day.”

In longer prepared remarks, DeJoy described recent concerns that new reforms to the Postal Service could delay or impede the delivery of ballots as a “false narrative” but vowed to not implement two major reforms until after Election Day in order to uphold the Postal Service’s “valued reputation as a source of reliability and strength for the American people.”

“While the Governors and I believe significant reforms are essential … even longstanding efficiency efforts have become a distraction from our mission of service to the public as the nation prepares to hold a presidential election in the midst of a devastating pandemic,” DeJoy wrote in his prepared statement.

DeJoy, who has served as postmaster general since June and is a Trump campaign donor, said the sweeping changes he made recently were necessary to keep the agency afloat, noting that the Postal Service will face a net loss of around $11 billion for fiscal year 2020. 

Read more here.

 

SHIPT OWNS UP: Target-owned grocery delivery service Shipt acknowledged an error in its tipping system on Friday after dozens of shopper complaints.

In an email sent to shoppers affected by the glitch obtained by The Hill, workers were told the tips that failed to transfer would be added to their accounts next week.

Shoppers affected by the glitch will receive an additional $5 on top of the refunded tip.

Shipt chief communications officer Molly Synder told The Hill that the company “discovered a system glitch that caused a very small number of tips from being transferred to shoppers.”

“The glitch was not specific to any one retailer and has been resolved,” she continued.

Synder also noted that the glitch affected “less than .01% of delivered orders and the average tip value was $10.”

The company will audit all tipped and failed orders quarterly moving forward.

Shipt’s shoppers have long complained about the glitches leaving them without tips, a source of income that has been especially crucial for many during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Washington Post reported on the glitches earlier this month, citing interviews with several shoppers.

Read more here.

 

FACEBOOK MAKES PLANS: Facebook is preparing a contingency plan for if President Trump tries to use the platform to delegitimize the results of this year’s presidential election, The New York Times reported Friday.

Mark Zuckerberg and some senior members of the company have reportedly discussed a “kill switch” to shut off political advertising after election day.

Political advertising is not fact-checked on the platform, and sources told the Times that Facebook employees are worried that exception could be used to spread misinformation.

Facebook did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill.

A spokesperson for the platform declined to comment on any specific post-election strategies in a statement to the Times.

“We continue to plan for a range of scenarios to make sure we are prepared for the upcoming election,” they said.

Read more here. 

 

ZUCKERBERG UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was questioned by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this week in an investigative hearing as part of the agency’s antitrust investigation, multiple outlets have reported.

It’s unclear exactly what Zuckerberg was asked about in the closed-door probe. Sources told Politico, the outlet that first reported the testimony, that the hearing doesn’t necessarily signal that the agency will ultimately pursue an antitrust lawsuit.

“We are committed to cooperating with the US Federal Trade Commission’s inquiry and answering the questions the Agency may have,” a Facebook spokesman said in a statement to The Hill. 

The FTC declined to comment for this story. 

The FTC hearing this week follows the House antitrust subcommittee hearing last month where Zuckerberg appeared alongside Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Read more here.

 

NEW GROUPS ASK APPLE TO PAY UP: Mainstream news organizations are pushing for more prosperous terms regarding Apple’s App Store, calling for reduced commissions for the company now worth $2 trillion.

A trade body representing the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and other publications drafted a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook inquiring how to get better deal terms that would allot those publications more revenue from digital subscriptions.

App developers and news publishers pay Apple 30 percent of the revenue for first-time subscriptions placed via iOS apps, reducing the commission to 15 percent after a subscriber’s first year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“The terms of Apple’s unique marketplace greatly impact the ability to continue to invest in high-quality, trusted news and entertainment particularly in competition with other larger firms,” said the letter, which is signed by Jason Kint, chief executive of the trade body, Digital Content Next.

The Hill reached out to Apple for comment regarding the letter but did not immediately receive a response.

The letter serves as one of several moves larger corporations are making against Apple’s terms.

Last week, video game company Epic Games, known for the popular title “Fortnite” filed a lawsuit against Apple and Alphabet’s Google after the game was removed from both company’s respective digital marketplaces.

At the time, Apple issued a statement saying Epic was pushing for a “special arrangement” on the marketplace, citing the game company’s decision to allow users to make in-app purchases directly to Epic, which would bypass Apple’s commissions and save the company 20 percent.

Read more here.

 

BARR OPPOSES SNOWDEN PARDON: Attorney General William Barr said Friday that he opposes pardoning Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor and whistleblower charged with espionage in 2013 after he released a trove of classified documents on U.S. surveillance programs.

At a press conference last week, President Trump said that he was “looking at” pardoning Snowden. Barr told The Associated Press that he is “vehemently opposed” to such a decision. 

“There are many, many people — it seems to be a split decision — that many people think that he should be somehow treated differently, and other people think he did very bad things,” Trump said of Snowden at a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. “And I’m going to take a very good look at it.”

Trump has previously called Snowden a “terrible threat” and a “terrible traitor.”

Snowden fled the U.S. and gained asylum in Russia after releasing a cache of classified documents that exposed the wide scope of surveillance inside the U.S. intelligence community.

Trump told the New York Post in an interview earlier this month that he was looking into whether the U.S. should allow Snowden to return from Russia without going to prison. 

Read more here.

Lighter click: Modern dating advice

An op-ed to chew on: The tech cold war is here–and the U.S. isn’t winning

NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:

The unemployed are taking their struggles to Reddit, a ‘beacon of light in this long dark night’ (The Washington Post / Travis Andrews)

QAnon looms behind nationwide rallies and viral #SavetheChildren hashtags (NBC News / Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins)

Hulu deepfaked its new ad. It won’t be the last (Protocol / Janko Roettgers) 

Weeks after malware disruption, New York hospital is getting back online (CyberScoop/ Sean Lyngaas) 

Foreign election observers prepare for challenging presidential race (National Journal / Harrison Cramer) 

Hackers leak alleged internal files of Chinese social media monitoring firms (Vice Motherboard / Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai)